


A dis(functional) family

by minorhotelsoaps



Series: The Ackerman family [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Ackermans getting what they deserve, Big Brother Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Child Mikasa Ackerman, Family Fluff, Gen, I'm a mess with tags, Levi's POV, Mikasa Ackerman & Levi Are Related, Mikasa still doesn't have parents, Minor Family Drama, They deserve being happy, because they're a family, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:20:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24443482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minorhotelsoaps/pseuds/minorhotelsoaps
Summary: Mikasa was 6 when she came to the Ackerman home, lost, disoriented and broken. The people in the home weren't sure if they themselves were a family, but damn if they wanted the girl to have one.Or all the Ackerman live as a family rom-com.
Series: The Ackerman family [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1765339
Comments: 8
Kudos: 39





	1. Mikasa was 6

Mikasa came into his life when he was 23. Levi knew he had another uncle, a Kuchel and Kenny's younger brother who ran away when he was 15. They talked about him sometimes, in stories they told or when he appeared in a photo or a document, but none of them had any idea of where he was today. 

Levi was still acostuming himself to being home, even if it was a year since he returned from the military. Kuchel was struggling to get a job, but at she wasn't selling herself on the streets, and Kenny, well, he brought money home, but Kuchel and Levi were smart enoguh to not ask questions. Their house wasn't the Kuchel's pimp safe house anymore, the money the governement gave them for Levi's service allowed a shitty apartament. It was small, dark and kinda depressing, but he didn't have to sleep with cocrokaches anymore. 

He returned from his job at a club's security and when Kuchel noticed Levi was home, he was showered and fast asleep on the sofa, she silently remembered to tell him not to shower at 4AM, but for Levi punching 19's years old was kinda gross. Her mother knew she needed to be fresh for her interview the next morning, so she went to sleep, and didn't notice the doorbell ringing after her son woke her up visibly agitated.

"Did your other brother had a child?" Levi asked her, his sharp eyes hurryng her response.

"I don't know anything about him since at least 20 years, why- why are you asking this?" Kuchel was trying to separate her eyelids, while Levi looked at her trying to decipher something.

"Well, breaking knews, you have a niece." he snapped while leaving her room "The kitchen."

It was 5:30AM and her son just woke her up and commanded her to go the kitchen after some early familiar acknolewge, and Kuchel's head wasn't wake enough to figure out what was happening from her bedroom, so she get herself into a nightrobe and head to the kitchen.

Before stepping in, she noticed the lights were on, so they weren't alone, even when Levi didn't usually wake up that early, the light from the windows where enough for him, and Kenny, if he was home, of course, wasn't ready to stand up those hours. With the white light blinding her, Kuchel entered the kithcen, absolutely not ready to meet two cops and a little girl. 

Levi was standing against the counter, looking at her like she should should have an idea what the hell was going on.

"Ms. Ackerman, we're really sorry to bother you at these hours, but it's a important thing." the cop greeted her before Kuchel could ask anything "For what we've discovered, you're the only relatives alive of the girl." 

Kuchel blinked and then stared at the man with wide eyes for the moment the world wake her up by trembling under her feet. Levi's words suddenly make sense, she watched the girl, petite and pale, sitting quietly on the chair, and if it wasn't for the policemen, she wouldn't have notice she was there. She was her brother's daughter, but she didn't resemble him, her black hair matched more her's and Levi's and those sharp eyes were definetly asian, and she wondered if her mother was that beutiful too. Then she realized that it was a question that wouldn't get answer, because their shitty apartament was the only place the girl had family, and for the lack of emotion on her face, and her red and empty eyes, her brother's death wasn't a kind one.  
Kuchel looked at the cop who was talking to her, older than her with some wrinkles on his forehead, and waved her head in a silent sign to leave the room. He understood and commanded his subordinate to leave with him.

"Levi, stay with the girl while I clear up the situation with the sirs." Kuchel ordered him, knowing that his son wouldn't protest in front of the police, despiting how upset he was with staying with the child.

He didn't dislike kids, not at all, after all they were to replace him when he was a old, wrinkled and even more grumpy man. But they make him awkard, normally, babies stared at him and make faces, and he couldn't predict what they meant. The ones around his cousin age were more expressive, but that wasn't a good thing either, they demanded attention, or odd child games or unconfortable-for-an-adult-who-has-the-context questions. Levi for sure prefered cleaning shit (and this were major words for him) and getting creep out by a baby's laughter.

Levi hesitated for a moment before sitting in the chair next to his cousin's. He tapped his fingers on the table, trying to form a phrase proper for a 6 year old.  
"Mikasa, right?" he maybe felt stupid for asking the child her own name when the police told him in front of her 15 minutes, or maybe because she looked him in the eyes without responding. "Well, Mikasa, do you want something?"  
Levi swear he was trying to be nice, but if kids normally put him in the edge of his patience, the situation was fucking mocking him. Nobody told him anything yet beside that her parents were death, but that for sure was something enough traumatic for a child, and he understood that.

"Probably it's not your usual breakfast hour, but I'm going to make some hot chocolate." he smiled at her, trying his best to not make the situation more violent for the girl. "Everybody likes hot chocolate."  
He stand up and started heating up the mix, Mikasa' silence was more confortable now that he was doing something, and if Levi was quiet enough, he could hear the conversation on the living room. Apparently, some buglar killed Mikasa's parents when they surprised them, the fool probably was sure that the house was empty. The neighbours called 911 after hearing some shots, and when the police arrived, nothing could be done for any of them, but Mikasa was hidden in a closet behind a pile of clothes. Levi wondered if she was unlucky enough to have seen something, but sure she heard the whole thing. What a horrible night for a child that young. 

The strong smell of the chocolate stopped Levi for pitying his cousin, remembering him to grab two mugs from the cabinet. Mikasa got the one that didn't looked like a kinder Mom's day project, and after Levi took his first sip, she put her hands around the warm mug, bringing it closer to her.

"Thank you."


	2. Mikasa liked bugs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They had luck the police let them go to her house to pick some of Mikasa's things.
> 
> Levi makes and attempt to interact with the girl.

Levi learned not to ask about pretty much anything Kenny did, because it was illegal on nine cases out of ten. He almost did when he got Mikasa in a nearby school in less than a week despite the month wait list, almost, but he learned better over those 23 years. And he didn't had the time to piece the puzzle of Kenny's highly doubtful and probably prosecuted by the law contacts that made them got the place, because it turned out kids were complicated as fuck. 

Even when Mikasa was a really quiet girl who didn't do much of anything, she involved a lot of things that he wasn't expecting. She needed to stop sleeping with Kutcher, to stop seeing Kenny's movies, they had to made present a lot of papers to take her full custody, their birth certificates, the house's papers, the taxes from the five past years and probably the toilet paper they wiped their ass with. New textbooks were urgent too, because it seemed like every school had their own preferences, hell, Levi wasn't even sufre he used textbooks when he was 6. It was all different now, Mikasa had been through a big trauma, but she still could have the quality life he hadn't. 

It was true she didn't had her house now, but it was a crime scene and after all, making space for Mikasa was hard enough to furthermore moving onto the next city. Their apartament was crusty and could be better in a million different ways, but it wasn't a brothel and Mikasa didn't have to sleep with drug-addicted prostitutes with fear of pricking herself with a used needle contaminated with some shit. 

Still, they had luck in what refers to police standards, the officers letting them in to pick some of her things. Her parents' bedroom was closed with yellow tape, and everyone made their best effort to ignore it. Mikasa stared at the door, her eyes wide, seeing again some that she shouldn't have saw ever, and Levi thought she was going to cry the next second. 

“Hey, kid, what toys do you wanna grab?” he grabbed her in his arms and Mikasa looked at him like she didn't knew where she was before realizing they were entering her dorm. 

They sat on the bed, Mikasa sitting on his legs while Kuchel investigated her closet. 

“Just grab the essential.” the officer that was escorting them said before closing the door and letting them alone. 

Levi thought that was gonna be the plan, but by the way his mother's eyes lit up when she saw all of Mikasa's clothes, he knew Kuchel would prepare the girl's wardrobe to the case she got invited to the Academy Awards. 

“We should call Kenny to tell the van to come over, we'll need the mattress.” Levi said while his mother was still checking every piece of Mikasa's clothing “Your bed seems comfortable, uh? “

“Yes, it is. I like my bed.” her briefness was characteristic at this point, but Levi couldn't blame her, Mikasa made her best effort to communicate and answer their questions, but they were still one step from being strangers to her “Can we take the bedsheets too? They're my favourite color.”

The man hadn't registered the pattern of the bedsheets until then, but the multi-coloured flowers became obvious once Levi acknowledged them. Orchids ranging from blue to purple, then to pink and red, and all the way around yellow and orange were scattered across the fabric, and Levi wondered which of those shades she was referring to, and that wasn't gonna be the day he'll knew it, but it was obvious Mikasa had a preferred one. 

“Do you like these, sweetheart?” Mikasa's head then directed to his mother's voice, showing them a pair of trousers. 

“No, I like these more.” the girl jumped out his lap and then began digging in her closet before taking out another pair and showing it to Kuchel. 

“We'll take these, then.” Levi smiled as stood up, and stretched open the sports bag they brought for the toys and the miscellaneous stuff. “Pick the clothes you want with Kuchel, while I take this and some more bedsheets. Then you'll tell me what toys are your favorites, okay?”

“Okay.” the girl nodded, and Kuchel's arm hugged her back into the complicated task of choosing her clothes. 

The bed clothes were thankfully instictivetly put on the first drawers of her white furniture, and Levi wondered if she would like more the butterflies one or the rainbow sky one, but decided for the butterflies at the end. Maybe Mikasa liked nature. 

He grabbed them some truly essentials like some socks, underwear and towels, and failing to find any sneakers in the endless sea of inappropriate-for-the-daily-life dressing shoes, Levi opted for keeping the ones she was wearing and make a trip to the mall in the evening. If they were cheap enough, he would consider buying her one of those that had lights. 

Excusing himself out of the room while the ladies decided between the white dress or the yellow jumpsuit, he left the bag at one side of the door and marked Kenny's number in his phone. His uncle gave him his word to be there in less than 20 minutes, and Levi couldn't trust entirely on that, because well, it was Kenny, but he at least gave his best word and not his usual word. 

On the way back to the room, a sliver frame shined in the brink of his eyes, keeping save a family photo. The man, his uncle, Mikasa's dad, didn't look like them, his hair blonde and somewhat round eyes in contrast to his, his mother, Kenny and even Mikasa's dark hair and sharp eyes. Even the girl's mother looked more like them. Her face was longer than her daughter, but she still looked like a grown-up version of the little girl picking up her clothes in the room behind him. 

Mikasa and her mother were wearing big pamelas and laughing, her mother' s arms embracing her figure while his father was the only one looking at the camera, obviously containing his laugh as he hugged his wife and wore a flower crown. 

Smiling in the nostalgia of someone who hadn't been there, Levi grabbed the silver frame, and directed himself to the officer escorting Mikasa's room. 

“Can we take this?It's in the middle of the halfway, so I don't think it's crucial proof.”

The officer was obviously too new to know the answer and freaked out after the question. 

“I don't know, sir, this isn't what we agreed on.” his words were doubtful, obviously wanting them to take the photo, but also avoiding his boss' scold. “I guess detective Dok could pass this one.”

“Thank you, officer. It's just that I don't want the girl to forget their faces.” Levi carefully put the frame between the bedsheets for the maximum protection the sports bag had to offer with the bittersweet clenching of names that had lost their name in his chest, before patting the police's shoulder and entering the room. 

“Can I pick my toys now?” Mikasa tilted her head at his comeback to the room. 

“I don't know, can she?” the accomplice look in his eyes made Kuchel's face draw a smile while folding the clothes. 

“Yes, I'll finish this myself.” 

Freed from the task, Mikasa ran towards him to grab his hand and sat them both in front of a large wood chest. She opened it and exposed a large, but not quite organized, variety of toys. Inside it contained a little bit of everything, from stuffed animals to dolls with cars and little instruments in the middle. 

Levi curiously grabbed a xylophone that had all the colors of the rainbow on its tiles, and played it awkwardly with the stick that was attached in one of its sides. Born without the talent of the music, Mikasa furrowed at the sound of the tiles that her cousin was cluelessly hitting. 

“Sorry, I've never been one to understand these things.”he almost apologized, putting the stick back on the side of the xylophone and handling it to Mikasa. “Do you like it?”

“I don't know, I've never played that sounded good, but I don't if I'll miss it in your house.” Mikasa answered, looking at the xylophone with the intensity Levi never thought anybody could look at a xylophone. 

“If you aren't sure, we should pick the ones you're really sure about first, and then decide about this one.” Mikasa nodded at his proposition and started scanning the toys in the chest “Which one is your favorite from here? “

The little girl leaned towards her treasure chest and grabbed an elephant figurine with no hesitation. She showed him the plastic mammal and how some parts like the legs or the ears were articulate. 

“You have a lot of animals like this one, huh? “ Levi observed, grabbing a giraffe with an articulated neck. 

“Yes, they're part of a collection. But I like the elephant the most, but I wish they had more bugs.” it was curious how the lack of insects could sadden somebody, but Mikasa's defeated expression was undeniable. 

“Do you like them?” Levi asked, prepared to take more mental notes of Mikasa's likes and dislikes. 

“I like butterflies, I think they're bugs.” the girl said and the look in her face told Levi she was repasing the list of existing bugs, which he didn't surely knew if butterflies could categorize in "Grasshoppers too, I like how they jump. And cicadas, mom and I put them in a jar and let them sing until it's nighttime."

Noted: Mikasa liked butterflies, grasshoppers and cicadas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was gonna be more long, and how Mikasa didn't want to leave any of her toys behind, and then Levi negotiating with the officer to let them take the whole chest, but I think just Mikasa and Levi talking about things she likes was more intimate and he making an effort to know her came as the perfect way to end this, I don't know, sometimes endings just come up like that.
> 
> By the way, I took Mikasa's like for bugs from when she was young and asked her mom about the insects of the forest in the anime. 
> 
> If you read until here, thank you so much!

**Author's Note:**

> I was horny, but I was incapable of writing anything smutty of this babes, so instead I wrote a lot of fluff in one night. The next morning I still was unable to write smut, but my soul was demanding some angst for the next chapters, so keep up!  
> Also I'm not a native english-speaker, so feel free to point any typos.


End file.
